AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's and women's cross country teams will officially open their respective 2016 seasons in Syracuse at the Le Moyne Short Course Invitational on Saturday, September 3, second-year head coach Paul Lagno announced today as he released the full slate of competitions for both teams this fall.

"We've shortened up our schedule a bit this year so we can put more emphasis on quality training during the early stages on the season," Lagno said of his teams' 2016 slate.

Both teams will tackle the same events throughout the season which opens, for the third consecutive year, at Le Moyne.  Last season, the Wildcat women got off to a solid start by finishing first among four competing teams at the event, while the Daemen men placed fourth out of nine teams.  The season-opening event is typically a shorter distance (4K for women, 6.2K for men) as athletes work their way towards normal competition distances (5K and 6K for women, 8K and 10K for men).

On September 17, Lagno's teams will make the first of back-to-back treks to Rochester for the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational.  That will be followed by the Harry F. Anderson Invitational hosted by Roberts Wesleyan College on September 24.  The latter of the two has been a fixture on the Daemen schedule for more than 10 years, and it takes place on the Matt St. James Cross Country Trails which will also serve as the site for the East Coast Conference Championships on October 22.

As the calendar turns to October, the Wildcats are scheduled to partake in the Lake Erie Storm Invitational in Painesville, Ohio, an event that should be a good measuring stick according to Lagno.

"The meet at Lake Erie College is a Division II-only competition that will showcase some of the best teams in both the East and Atlantic regions.  It'll be a great test for us and should set us up nicely for the conference championship meet two weeks later."

Daemen's final tune-up for the ECC Championships comes just down Main Street, a short five-and-a-half mile jaunt from the Daemen campus to Delaware Park, the Frederick Law Olmsted gem, where the Canisius Alumni Classic will be held on October 15.  It'll mark the second straight year that Daemen has competed at this event which traditionally features several Division I teams.

That sets the stage for the afore-mentioned conference championship meet in Rochester the following Saturday.  Both the men's and women's teams have fared well in the past three years since joining the ECC, with last season marking the first time that either team was officially eligible to win the league crown.  Neither team has finished worse than fourth with the Wildcat women hauling home two runner-up finishes, including one last season.

The NCAA Division II East Region Championships are slated for November 5 in Hopkinton, N.H. where Lagno's athletes will have the opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships.  To qualify as a team, the Wildcats will need to finish in the top three at the regional championship meet.  Should that not occur, individual runners can qualify by being one of the top three finishers among runners not attached to a qualifying team.  Last season, the Wildcat women finished just out of contention for a team berth with a fourth-place performance, but did send Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./east Aurora) to nationals based on her third-place performance in the individual medalist standings.

"If all goes according to plan, our schedule should set us up to be running our best in early November when it matters most," Lagno added.

The 2016 NCAA Division II National Championships take place on Saturday, November 19 in St. Leo, Fla.

The Daemen women's team returns its top four runners in Donahue, Amy Trabert (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst), Hannah Rice (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) and Brittany Denton (Oakfield, N.Y./Oakfield-Alabama).  Donahue, who earned first-team All-ECC and first-team All-Region honors, set school records on four ocassions last season en route to becoming the first Daemen athlete in any sport to compete in a national championship event at the Division II level.  Trabert and Denton were each second-team All-ECC performers last season, and Rice, who missed the conference championship meet with an injury, is the defending individual medalist at the Le Moyne Short Course Invitational.

The Daemen men must deal with the graduation of its top runner - Jeremy Rushok (Akron, N.Y./Buffalo State College).  But, Lagno's squad returns junior Kevin Roginson (Amherst, N.Y./Williamsville South) who emerged last season as a viable team leader.  He recorded a career-best 8K time of 26:25.23 to finish in ninth place at last season's ECC Championships, earning second-team All-ECC honors in the process.  

Lagno's athletes report to pre-season training camp on Monday, August 22.

For breaking news and continuing coverage of the Daemen men's and women's cross country teams, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenXC on Twitter.